Sexual-assault bill falters in Senate

Friday

Mar 7, 2014 at 12:01 AMMar 7, 2014 at 3:43 PM

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted down a bill yesterday seeking to overhaul the way the military handles cases of sexual assault by giving authority to prosecute sexual-assault cases to an independent military prosecutor instead of top commanders.

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted down a bill yesterday seeking to overhaul the way the military handles cases of sexual assault by giving authority to prosecute sexual-assault cases to an independent military prosecutor instead of top commanders.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., only got 55 of the 60 votes it would have needed to go ahead under Senate rules. The vote was 55-45, with 23 senators crossing party lines.

Immediately after that bill failed, the Senate voted unanimously to advance a separate reform measure that would not go as far as Gillibrand’s.

Despite months of intense lobbying, Gillibrand and her supporters could not overcome Pentagon leaders’ insistence that such a fundamental change would weaken the chain of command and that officers should have more responsibility, not less, for addressing sex crimes.

“We know the deck is stacked against victims of sexual assault in the military, and today, we saw the same in the halls of Congress,” Gillibrand said after the vote, adding that she would continue to press for reforms.

Gillibrand’s Military Justice Improvement Act had been a focus of intense debate over how the Pentagon should handle assault cases. A study released in May 2013 estimated that incidents of unwanted sexual contact, from groping to rape, had jumped by

37 percent in 2012, reaching 26,000 cases.

The Senate voted 100-0 to proceed with the second bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who both opposed Gillibrand’s legislation.

The McCaskill-Ayotte bill would provide a special counsel to guide victims through the military justice system but leave responsibility for prosecution with commanders.